It may be desirable to encapsulate the end of a wire cable 2 that is attached to an electrical cable terminal 4 as shown in FIG. 1a within a sealant to protect the joint between the wire cable 2 and the terminal 4. It is especially desirable to seal this joint from electrolytes when the wire cable 2 and terminal 4 are made from dissimilar metals, such as aluminum and copper, to prevent galvanic corrosion of the wire 2 or terminal 4.
A known approach to encapsulate the end of the wire cable is to apply a sealant and heat shrink tubing 6 over the joint between the terminal 4 and wire cable 2 as shown in FIG. 1b. Dual wall heat shrink tubing has an outer wall made of a heat shrinkable plastic such as polyolefin and an inner wall made of a thermoplastic adhesive sealant may be used to simplify the application process. When the heat shrink tubing is heated, the thermoplastic adhesive sealant melts on the inner wall melts and the outer wall shrinks to conform to the wire end and the terminal.
However, this approach for encapsulation has a shortcoming when used to encapsulate a wire end on a terminal having a rectangular cross section near the wire/terminal joint. As illustrated in FIG. 1c, when the heat shrink tubing 6 contracts around the terminal 4 and wire cable 2 as it is heated, the outer wall 8 of the heat shrink tubing 6 comes in contact with the distal edges 10 of the terminal 4, extruding the sealant 12 away from the edges 10 and leaving little or no sealant 12 along the edges 10 to bond to the terminal 4. This creates a leak path for fluids containing corrosive electrolytes to access the joint between the terminal 4 and wire cable 2. Therefore, a terminal that can avoid the creation of this leak path is desired.
The subject matter discussed in the background section should not be assumed to be prior art merely as a result of its mention in the background section. Similarly, a problem mentioned in the background section or associated with the subject matter of the background section should not be assumed to have been previously recognized in the prior art. The subject matter in the background section merely represents different approaches, which in and of themselves may also be inventions.